Misc. Open DV from 2005

Hello all,

I have a Canon XL2, which I purchased for short film making. This wont be taking place until later in the year so it will just be sitting there for most of the time. So I thought I would look into the possibility of hiring said camera out.
I've never done anything like this before, so was just looking for some advice - especially about getting it insured for such purposes.

Cheers.

[Mike R Long]

Does anyone know where I can get some good books or dvd's on training or just information about Cinematography and Director of Photography.

Thanks

[Conan Edogawa]

A datarate problem

[Bryan Coleman]

I am wondering if it is possible to make my own accurate greyscale chart using adobe photoshop and a high end laser printer. Has anyone tried this?
Thanks
Bryan

[Mike Rinkunas]

hey everyone,

As my productions have grown larger, most everything is shot with dual cameras, i've decided to invest in a set of Cobra PR 4000-2 WX 2 way radios to be able to talk between cameras. I selected this model/brand since a photographer i work closely with uses the same radios and i wanted to ensure we could always communicate with him and my other cameras.

I want to get headset microphones so you can talk without disrupting any camera work, however i'm not very impressed with cobra's selection - a whopping 2 different mic's....

Does anyone know if i were to purchase another brand's microphone setup - provided it is a single jack microphone/speaker connection - will it still work with my radios? Ie like radioshack/motorola?

thanks
~Mike

[Peter Ferling]

Have several inhouse training projects that require 720p wmv HD. Direct encoding to 2-pass VBR 720p, in software, from the NLE timeline (PPro 1.5), takes about 12hrs for each hour of product. I'm looking for a realtime solution.

I could get another workstation and hand-off the rendering chores to that, but I could spend the same money getting a more dedicated hardware solution to directly encode to wmv hd.

1) Is there a solution that will tie into PPro, thus exellerating the encode?
2) Should I just render an uncompressed avi to a large array, and then re-encode to 720p wmv? I'd save several hours per project at the very least.
3) Much of the jobs are under 1.5hrs, so I'm authoring to standard DVD. Is there a solution that will burn wmv HD direct to DVD, and in realtime?

Anything I can do to avoid 12hrs encode per 1 hour of content would be greatly appreciated.

[Dylan Tucker]

I'll be working with a canon gl-1, and need some advice on a wide angle lens and some filters. I dont have a very big budget, so I'm trying to save money but not loose too much quality. I need a wide angle or fisheye lens, polarizing, and uv filter


1. I will be shooting with the wide angle/fisheye on sometimes and with the normal lens sometimes. I dont need to be able to zoom when the wide angle lens is on. should this effect my decision on what lens im getting(Im not sure if this means that i will be able to get a cheaper lens)? Im hoping to get something .65x or wider. Im not sure if I should get a fisheye, or wide angle, Im assuming that you get more distortion with the fisheye, Im not really sure what the difference between the two is though. I dont really have to be worried about distortion though


2. I'm thinking about getting a kenko Pro .65 wide angle lens(58mm inside thread and 82mm outside thread, but this can change...
I dont want to have to buy two sets of filters if possible. Will it affect my quality that much if I just get 58mm filters and put them on before the lens instead of having two sets (58mm and 82mm)for when i film with the W/A lens off/on respectively.

3. Should I be getting a certain type of polarizing filter? I dont know the difference between linear and circular...


Thanks
-Dylan

[Hamad Abdulla]

Hi

I'm reading a lot about the HDW-730s and HDW-750, now I have a budget just enough to purchase the HDW-730s but after I researched more about the camera, I'm afraid that I would go and waste my money on a camera that would not fit my needs.

First of all I would like to use the camera for two main purposes:

1- Achieve cinmematic look for my projects especially films, corporate videos and commmercials.
2- Use the end product and down-convert it into SD, to be televised in PAL stations.

I read in several places that HDW-730s don't give you a cinematic look or feeling to your project, is that true? Would it be a waste of money purchasing that camera, when all I am looking for was to ahieve that film look?

Can somebody help me out...

Thanks

[Nathan Rulf]

Hello, sorry if this question has already been answered but I haven't been able to find it addressed. I've shot almost an entire independent feature on 24p DV (specifically MiniDV with a Canon XL2). Of course I want to make copies of the tapes ASAP.

I have a little Sony TRV-27 (miniDV) which I use as a deck connected to my Avid system - I was told that 24p pulldown flags (2:3:3:2 in this case) that are on a tape (shot on the XL2) could play back from a cam/deck even if the cam/deck couldn't create them itself (the TRV-27 can't). So far, so good.

I have a firewire cable that can connect the Canon XL2 directly to the TRV-27, and I can dub tapes directly to the Sony (press play on Canon, press record on Sony), and I'm sure the transfer quality is good, but I'm concerned about the pulldown flags surviving the process, since the TRV-27 itself probably can't create them. Thus I'd have a 60i interlaced version of the video that Avid presumably would NOT be able to reconstruct into 24p.

Anybody have any ideas about this? Of course it would save lots of money and time to make the backups myself but the whole point of shooting 24p might be lost.

Thanks!

-Nate

[Clint Grant]

Just today, on the Canon website, canon relased a new camcorder - The Optura 600. Many may already have known this, but I just want to raise a point - could this mean the upcoming arrival of some new 3-chip prosumer cams? Or maybe, the arrival of Canon's first Hi-Def prosumer?........

[Dhruba Naug]

Hi,

What kind of devices are available that can automatically move a camera along 2 axes in a specific pattern that I can program?

I would like to move the camera, let's say, x cms on the x axis, stay there for m minutes and then move y cms on the y axis and so on. The pattern should be programmable.

It will be all done indoors and the 2 axes along which I'm moving the camera are well within 1m. I don't want any remote control over the movement, I would just like to program it once and for all for one session.

And of course, how much such a system is going to cost me? I read some info about the sunpak and bescor motorized pan heads but I'm not sure if these are going to do what I want.

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

[Jon Kamps]

recently had our production van broken into. Among other things our CG was stolen. We are going to move the Videoonics Powerscript Pro we have in our main studio to the bus (this is what we had in the van before) but now we are unsure of the route to go for out studio. From what i've been told they don't make the powerscript anymore. So where trying to find out what our options our.

were looking at the Chryon DigiBox CODI single channel. I'm having a hard time though finding out what I exactly need to make it work in our studio (the link to the brosure on thier website in broken and I can't get into thier forums). Were a small goverment station so we don't have a huge budget but were looking to see what our options are for the $5,000-10,000 catagory are.

I know this isn't prolly what you guys deal with alot but maybe you know enough to point me in the right direction

[Spike Spiegel]

Hey all, i'm posting from India as i was shooting a pilot for a travel series. Shooting is over and there is a great chance the show will be picked up by a major network. We are doing all the work in house and still have a lot of editing to do. Once editing is done, (we have collab'ed with a major prod company) the production company will promote, market and distribute it to the networks for us. My first question is, should we do the promotion and distribution aspect ourselves, or should we have a middleman come in and do that for us. This production company is big time and they have a lot more contacts that i can ever hope for. What would you recommend? Which route should I take? All the shooting was done by us, all the editing will be done by us, should we rely on the big-time company to distribute our content to the networks (if it gets picked up). Or should we completely ignore then and contact the networks directly?

My second question is regarding equipment; our small crew used the following cameras: canon gl2, xl2, and a sony vx2000. We are thinking about upgrading, something futureproof, so which brand would you recommend? Z1 is looking mighty nice, but what about panasonic's latest model thats coming out? Should we wait to buy a hd camera or will a sony z1 or a panny be fairly future proof? I realize we will need to upgrade decks etc, and monitors, but i'm mainly concerned wi/ the camera for now.

Thanks for any advice and help, muchly appreciated.

Spike

[Carlos Saldivia]

Can anyone give me a quick overview comparison of the JVC HR-DVS2U and the SR-VS30U Mini DV/VHS recorders?..

[Gints Klimanis]

Hi,

I'm interested in durable, solid state mini camcorders. Has anyone seen
this product or found anything better in such a small package? I don't think that it records audio, though.

Philips KEY019/17 128MB MPEG4 Camcorder, Photos, MP3
MPEG4 camcorder + photos + MP3.

Live and capture any moment with the ultra cool and compact 128MB Key019 Wearable Digital Camcorder. Shoot 25 minutes of MPEG4 video, or snap 200 2.0 Mpixel pictures and enjoy MP3 music. Share your memories on any PC via direct USB.

http://www.directron.com/key019.html